News and events

This site provides information about current, past, and future EarSay projects, as well as news updates, press kits, press clippings, mission statement, bios, info on resources, associate artists and organizations, how to give, how to buy things and how to get in touch.

EarSay is an artist-driven non-profit arts organization dedicated to uncovering and portraying stories of the uncelebrated. Founded by Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan in 1999, our projects bridge the divide between documentary and expressive forms in books, exhibitions, on stage, in sound & electronic media. We are committed to fostering understanding across cultures, generations, gender and class, through artistic productions and education. We bring our work to theatres, museums, schools, festivals and universities. Scroll over the top menu to view projects, get information, shop, etc.

ONE NIGHT performance of 1001 Voices: A Symphony for a New America

Saturday December 16 at 8pm, Colden Auditorium Queens College
in collaboration with the Queens Choral Society and the Aaron Copland School of MusicTickets Click Here

Mozart’s Requiem and 1001 Voices (music by Frank London, libretto by Judith Sloan and visuals by Warren Lehrer), reflects ideas of transformation, migration and finding home while celebrating the diversity of the borough of Queens.

Poetry in Windows Public Art Installation: 1001 Voices: An Anthem for a New America

Click Here For More Info and Images
Come visit the window installation in partnership with the Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice. 2 Court Square, Long Island City, NY. Across from the Citibank building at the Courthouse Square subway: M, E, G, 7 train.

Some street photos:

Judith Sloan Awarded Commissioning Grant

Queens Council on the Arts announces four selected artists for the Inaugural Year of the Artist Commission Program. Judith Sloan hosts an event for her commission of a new work “IT CAN HAPPEN HERE” a new theatrical performance developed from gathering stories of anguish and defiance in the face of xenophobia and repression.

Warren Lehrer at Carnegie Mellon

In his funny, thought provoking performance/reading based on his illuminated novel A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley, Warren presents an overview of his protagonist’s life in books via many of Mobley’s book cover designs, book-like objects, and other biographical materials including animations and video performances of Mobley book excerpts.

A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley is an illuminated novel that contains 101 books within it, all written by Lehrer’s controversial author protagonist who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career. In his funny, thought provoking performance/reading, Lehrer presents an overview of Mobley’s life in books via many of his book covers, book-like objects, and other biographical materials including animations and video performances of book excerpts.

Judith Sloan Performances

Saturday December 16 at 8pm
1001 Voices: A Symphony for a new America.A collaboration between EarSay and the Queens Choral Society and the Aaron Copland School of Music with 120 voice choir. Composed by Frank London, Libretto by Judith Sloan, Animations by Warren Lehrer.Saturday December 16, 2017 at Colden Auditorium.

Warren Lehrer was honored by the Center for Book Arts in NYC “for his contribution to book arts and its connection to the broader world of contemporary art.”

“Every year The Center for Book Arts honors three important people who have and continue to inform the book arts field, such as curators, librarians, collectors, organizations, and, of course, artists.” Lehrer was recognized as one of the 2016 honorees at this year’s Center for Book Arts Gala Benefit on April 4th at the National Arts Club in NYC. The other honorees this year were May Castleberry, librarian at MoMA, and Peter Kraus, proprietor of Ursus Books.

Lehrer’s Center for Book Arts award describes him as a “Pioneer in visual literature and design authorship” and honors him for his “commitment to furthering the mission of The Center for Book Arts and championing the Art of the Book.”

On March 24 Warren Lehrer premiered the A LIFE IN BOOKS: Bleu Mobley Retrospective Exhibition at the O’Kane Gallery at the University of Houston, Downtown. Based on Lehrer’s award-winning illuminated novel A LIFE IN BOOKS, the exhibition presents itself as a retrospective of Bleu Mobley’s life work. It encompasses over 250 pieces, including all 101+ Bleu Mobley book jackets, accompanied by “original” catalogue descriptions, select interior pages, book-like objects, animations and video performances of book excerpts, and facsimiles of letters, articles, notebooks, and other artifacts that help tell the Bleu Mobley story.

A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley is an illuminated novel that contains 101 books within it, all written by Lehrer’s protagonist—Bleu Mobley—a controversial author who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career. Mobley’s autobiography/apologia is paired with a review of all 101 of his books, each represented by its first-edition cover design and catalog copy, and more than a third of his books are excerpted. The resulting retrospective contrasts the published writings (which read like short stories) with the confessional memoir, forming a most unusual portrait of a well-intentioned, obsessively inventive (if ethically challenged) visionary. A LIFE IN BOOKS explores the creative process of a writer/artist, as it reflects upon a half century of American/global events, and grapples with the future of the book as a medium, and the lines that separate and blur truth, myth, and fiction.

A LIFE IN BOOKS is the winner of 9 Awards including: The 2015 International Book Award – Best New Fiction, The 2014 IPPY Outstanding Book of the Year Award for “Most Original Concept” (Independent Publisher), The 2014 Best New Fiction Award (USA Best Books), a Next Generation Indie Book Award, a National Indie Book Award, a CBAA Exhibition Prize, and a Print Magazine Regional Design Award

In his funny, thought provoking performance/readings, Warren Lehrer presents an overview of Bleu Mobley’s life in books via many of Mobley’s book cover designs, book-like objects, and other biographical materials including animations and video performances of Mobley book excerpts.

Lehrer recently completed a book of visual poetry in collaboration with the investigative journalist and poet Dennis Bernstein titled The Bullet That Pierced His Son’s Skull. Bernstein’s poems, Lehrer’s visualization. The book contains 254 poems, eight chapters, and runs 340 pages. To be published sometime next year. Stay tuned!